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“You awake?” Ed whispered. Stede had rolled over, but his eyes were still closed.
“Mmm, a little bit.” Stede muttered, still not opening his eyes.
“I wanna ask you something.”
“Mmm?”
It occurred to Ed that he should probably have waited until Stede was fully awake to ask such a big question, but he might not have gone through with it if he hadn’t ridden the wave of impulsivity he inexplicably felt this morning. “Will you be my matelot?”
Stede sighed and sleepily opened his eyes. “What’s that?”
Ed looked away, unable to keep eye contact now that Stede was awake. He rolled onto his back and found his gaze fixing on nothing in particular. “It… it’s a pirate thing.” he said with a shrug. “It means that all other pirates will know that… we’re a team. What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. We fight together, we live together, we protect each other…”
Stede was fully awake now, hanging on Ed’s every word. “You mean like a marriage?”
“No.” Ed said quickly. He felt like a child asking his mother for something he knew she couldn’t afford. “It’s not like a marriage. It’s different.”
“Would there be a ceremony, where we dress in our finest things?”
Ed shrugged. “Yeah, if you like.”
“Would we exchange rings?”
“I suppose we could.”
“Would we go on a honeymoon?”
Ed still couldn’t meet Stede’s eye. “Maybe… What’s that?”
“It’s when two people go on a vacation together. They travel to exotic locations, see the sights, and make love every night.”
Ed gave a slight grin and shot Steed a look. “I do like the sound of that.”
“It sounds a lot like a marriage to me.”
“It’s not a marriage.” Ed shook his head and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s a pirate thing, it’s completely different.” There was a beat of silence, and then Ed whispered nervously, “So…?”
Stede threaded his fingers through Ed’s to get his attention.
Ed looked back at him hesitantly.
“I would be honoured to be your matelot.”
Ed beamed with relief. He rolled over and kissed Stede and then pulled away just to say, “You’ve made me so happy!”
“You make me happy.” Stede replied earnestly.
Ed rested his head on Stede’s shoulder, feeling more content than he had… well, probably ever. Then he heard a small, almost timid whisper.
“Ed?”
Ed looked up. “Mmm?”
Stede swallowed. He almost seemed to be struggling to form the words. “Will you marry me?”
“What?” Ed whispered back, not quite believing what he was hearing.
“I know, it doesn’t make any sense.” Stede waved his hand dismissively, speaking more to himself than to Ed. “We’re both men, and marriage is for a man and a woman. But… on the other hand… maybe it makes perfect sense. It certainly makes more sense than my marriage to Mary. Besides, we are pirates after all. What’s the use of being a pirate if you can’t break the rules to marry the one you love? What, we can maim and steal from someone but we can’t marry each other?”
“I suppose…” Ed agreed. He watched Stede carefully, like the child who has nothing but still has a flicker of hope that there might be a toy in Santa’s sack for him. “You want to marry me?”
All hesitation in Stede’s expression faded as he looked back at Ed with an eager intensity “More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my entire life. I left my family to be a pirate. I thought I was looking for adventure, but what I was really looking for… was you. I just didn’t know it yet.”
A sob came out on Ed’s next breath. He hadn’t meant to do that.
“So what do you say? Will you marry me?”
“Yeah…” he said, as a bashful grin made it’s way across his face.